Stingers Host Bandits for Best of the West Matchup

The Edmonton Stingers and Fraser Valley Bandits will both look to bounce back from home losses in their first meeting of the season at Edmonton Expo Centre on Wednesday at 7 pm MT.

Edmonton enters the game sitting second place in the Canadian Elite Basketball League with a 4-2 record, just ahead of their fellow west coast opponent out of Fraser Valley, sitting in third place at 3-2. 

The back-to-back CEBL champs out of Edmonton had their four game winning streak snapped on Sunday. The upstart Scarborough Shooting Stars locked down defensively and defeated the Stingers in unfamiliar territory 78-69. 

The Stingers continued to play well defensively in defeat, holding their opponent to 78 points or under for their fifth consecutive game. However, with new but familiar faces Marlon Johnson and Mathieu Kamba making their season debuts on Sunday, the Stingers struggled to gel offensively. Their biggest contributors came off the bench, with Aher Uguak putting up a team-high 14 points to go along with 9 points each from Adika Peter-McNeilly, Jahmal Jones and David Pekarek.  Edmonton were outrebounded in the loss and Jordan Baker struggled from the field, going 1-6 for just 2 points.

Meanwhile, the Fraser Valley Bandits suffered a 80-68 loss to the Hamilton Honey Badgers in Langley last week after splitting a home-and-home with the Saskatchewan Rattlers. Shane Gibson and Murphy Burnatowsli led the Bandits in their loss, with Gibson netting 22 points and Burnatowski dropping 18. 

Fraser Valley was outrebounded 46-30 by the Honey Badgers. Hamilton also collected 10 steals and scored 26 points off turnovers in the win over the Bandits.

After scoring under 70 points in their last games, both the Stingers and Bandits will look to regain their offensive groove on Wednesday. 

The Bandits will likely rely on the hot hand of Murphy Burnatowski to carry the offensive load. Burnatowski enters the game leading the team in scoring at 15.2 points per game, sitting second in the league in threes made and third in three point percentage at 50 per cent. Canadian basketball journeyman Alex Campbell is second on the team in scoring with 13.8 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game. Shane Gibson and U Sports big man Thomas Kennedy have also been big contributors for the Bandits this season with Gibson averaging 13.6 points per game and Kennedy scoring 10.2 points per game on 71 per cent shooting and hauling in 7.8 rebounds.

Kadre Gray has been dishing out 5.6 assists per game for Fraser Valley, fourth best in the league, but hasn’t had the same scoring impact fans have grown accustomed to. 

The Stingers’ balanced attack will look to bounce back against the Bandits with their great ball movement. Edmonton will try to reintegrate Johnson and Kamba into a lineup that features an already deep bench. Brody Clarke, Aher Uguak and Jordan Baker all average double figures so far for the Stingers with Baker adding 10.8 rebounds per game, 5.3 assists per game and 1.7 steals per game to his stat line. 

This is the first of two matchups between the Bandits and Stingers this season. 

The game will stream on CEBL+ live internationally and in Canada at cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS

and Android devices and the free CBC Gem streaming service. Games are also available on the CEBL’s official app, CEBL Mobile, available on iOS and Android devices.

Edmonton Stingers season tickets are available at https://www.thestingers.ca/season-tickets17e760ad  while Fraser Valley Bandits season tickets are available athttps://www.thebandits.ca/season-tickets . 

A league created by Canadians for Canadians, the CEBL has the highest percentage of Canadian players of any professional league in the country, with 71 percent of its current rosters being Canadians. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U SPORTS. The only First Division Professional League Partner of Canada Basketball, the CEBL season runs from May through August. Head to CEBL.ca for more information or follow us (@cebleague) on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook & YouTube.